Word
by Azarath's Raven
Summary: How do you break up with someone without even saying a single word? Word. BBRae & Robstar
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: The author does not own the Teen Titans. All credits go to the respective creators of the Teen Titans, the most amazing set of characters in the world.

* * *

 **Word**

Robin was a man of secrets.

He kept secrets from his team. He kept secrets for his team.

No one could really blame him. He was afraid that they would get hurt if they knew.

Seven days ago, he had gone to see a movie with Starfire. When they returned to his R-Cycle, there was a note on it.

When he read it, he was certain that someone was trying to send him a message. Nobody writes in blood for no reason. O+ blood to be exact.

 ** _They live by the eye,_**

 ** _They only serve ham._**

 ** _They are the pirate's sea bed_**

 ** _TreasurE_**

 ** _(Tell no One)_**

He wasn't a poet. Never had been and probably never will be. Only the last line made sense to him.

* * *

Raven was a woman of even more secrets.

She loved having her privacy. She needed to have her privacy.

No one could really blame her. Her secrets were too dark for them to handle.

Seven days ago, she went to her favourite tea place at the edge of town. When she sat down, the wind blew a piece of paper that landed right in her face.

When she read it, she knew someone was trying to send her a message. Nobody writes in blood for no reason.

 ** _Ever the murderous saint,_**

 ** _Eternal palette of hell's whims_**

 ** _Enchanting like witches,_**

 ** _Escort of evil._**

 ** _(Ever silent be or else.)_**

Raven was a poet. Always had been and always loved poetry. She knew exactly what it meant and she wasn't happy about it.

* * *

Starfire was a woman of few secrets.

She loved and trusted her friends. She knew they loved and trusted her.

No one could really blame her. They all knew that secrets were burdens that sweet Starfire shouldn't have to bear.

Seven days ago, she went to the mall in search for a nice hat to wear to the beach. When she came back to the tower and tried on the hat in front of the mirror, a note fell out of it.

When she read it, she thought it was a love poem. After all, red is the colour of passion and love.

 _ **Explosion of sweetness in mouth,**_

 _ **Eternal dia-dem upon forehead.**_

 _ **Ever the cause of dia-betes, sugar,**_

 ** _Ecstasy_** _ **of a highness in lows.**_

 ** _(Ever keep our secret)_**

Starfire was confused and scared. She thought she knew what it meant but she had no idea what to do with it.

* * *

Cyborg was a man of some secrets.

He kept to himself mainly what was necessary: like how his robotic body and security systems worked.

No one could really blame him. These secrets were essential to his survival and their protection.

Seven days ago, he went to the hardware store to buy some replacement tools. When he returned to the T-Car, there was a note on his windscreen that looked like a parking ticket.

When he read it, he thought it was an advertisement. After all, advertisers use red and bold letters to get attention.

 ** _Never before have they sunk so low,_**

 ** _No bargaining, no begging, no time._**

 ** _Neither can see what either can see,_**

 ** _Not until you visit me._**

 ** _(Never speak of this)_**

Cyborg thought it was the strangest advertisement he'd ever seen but thought little of it. Hansel's Hardware was famous for their advertising gimmicks. He tossed the note in the glove compartment and drove off.

* * *

Beast Boy was a man of certain secrets.

He kept to himself certain things that were important to him. Harmless things he didn't want the others to know.

No one could really blame him. Every man is entitled to protect his ego.

Seven days ago, he sat in his room reading his latest comic book that had just come in the mail. When he had reached the middle of the book, there was the strangest note inside.

When he read it, he rejoiced because he thought that the note meant that his comic was a 'special edition'.

 ** _So awesome is a lead-less pencil!_**

 ** _Still creative are the works of dull minds,_**

 ** _Superb for entertainment and nothing else._**

 ** _So young is this wine, it will never age._**

 ** _(Silence... keep this to yourself)_**

Beast Boy smiled as he carefully tucked the note in the same page that he found it. That day was a very good day for him.

* * *

And so, only Robin and Raven knew, and only Robin and Raven feared.

This was definitely strange and new, for all five didn't know what neared.


	2. Chapter 2

Robin. Cunning detective, master strategist and a prodigy trained by the Batman himself.

A man of science and logic, his research followed his pattern of thought. He would piece together the evidence gathered by his own hands and work backward to locate its source.

He sat alone in the dark room for one whole night watching, re-watching and analysing the CCTV footage from the parking lot. No one ever came close to his bike all evening. The paper had appeared out of thin air. This could mean that magic was involved and oh, how he hated it when magic was involved because it defied the logical boundaries of cold, hard science.

With this conclusion in mind, he checked the timing that the paper had appeared and recorded it right down to the millisecond before hitting the books. No significance of that particular time in all researchable forms of mythology, religion and the occult. History was quiet too.

His bike: he circled and squatted around it all day like a frog trying to apply makeup to a very beautiful bike. For all his efforts to dust out the truth, he could not find a single fingerprint that didn't belong to him or Starfire.

He moved on to the paper. Robin methodically cut tiny squares off the sides of the paper before subjecting them to one lab test after another in a feverish bid to determine its component materials and manufacturing process. Unfortunately for him, it was just a common piece of white paper one could buy anywhere in Jump City, a lead too wide to even be a lead at all. Dead end.

From the paper, he went on to the contents. The blood. O+; the most common blood type. He had a DNA profile that didn't match anything that both the police and the Titans had in their files.

The words. He searched up every word in the dictionary for all the possible meanings. Symbolism, parallelism, imagery, diction... He had a pretty good idea now that someone hated him. Who that was, he had no clue. Why that was, baffled him even more.

Words are strung together in different styles depending on the tastes of the author, so that was what he moved on to. He cross referenced the poem's literary style with that of poets who were known to despise superheroes. Nothing. He tried all the local poets. No obvious correlation. He tried all the American poets. Still nothing.

As he was reading the poem and delving into the mystery behind it, the entire situation somehow reminded him of Raven. She too was dark and mysterious and she loved to lose herself in her seemingly endless world of words. She did magic too and as anyone with eyes could see, she hated a lot of things. However, he shook those thoughts from his mind. She was a teammate and he trusted her.

Robin.

A man who loved his friends so much that he loathed sharing his burdens with them.

Tonight as the moon came up, he fell asleep at his desk.

* * *

Raven. Wise empath, mature poet, lover of literature.

A woman of creativity and the Arts, her research followed the steps of poetry analysis. She would piece together the poet's identity by starting with authorial intention and working forward.

She was a poet herself. She knew that the main purpose of poetry and creative writing was to express to the world the inner thoughts of the writer's mind.

A poet out there hated her enough to send her a note. This was a person who was clearly consumed with loathing for her. One little poem would not suffice to quell such hatred. She knew that from experience. There had to be another outlet.

Some avid fans made videos of the titans. Others drew pictures. And still others summoned the artistry of words to write stories about them.

It takes a great deal of dedication and time to write fanfiction. If a hater wanted to let off some steam, they would probably find the most pleasure in hating the lovers of the Titans; people who would actually respond.

They would hate with the voice of spite, their remarks going way beyond the borders of constructive criticism. They would launch personal attacks, stalking and harassing endlessly.

Raven took an intelligent guess. A lover of words would hated her would likely pick on other lovers of words who loved her. And where better to find these fans than a fanfiction website?

So Raven took a gamble. Under the pen-name 'Azarath's Raven', she wrote a story. A story titled 'Word'.

She posed as a fan. She wrote about herself. She melded poetry with prose; a fusion of creative writing.

But her story was needless. Her pen-name itself warranted attention. At around midnight, she received a private message.

 _ **earth holds. earth swallows**_  
 _ **water sustains. water drowns**_  
 _ **fire warms. fire burns**_  
 _ **wind cools. wind storms**_  
 _ **void heaven. void hell**_

 _"Earth, water, fire, wind and void."_ Raven thought fast. _"They are the five elements. The first four elements have juxtaposing traits and abilities meaning someone is trying to portray them as double-edged swords capable of both preventing and causing harm. The last one is more of a statement of being. Void is heaven, as it is hell. Perhaps a combination of heaven and hell! This poem has five lines, just like the one on the paper I found and just like the other one, the fifth line is the anomaly. If I'm to believe these poems were written by the same person, then whoever wrote this is clearly obsessed with the number five and with what seems to be a struggle between good and evil. Time to set a trap."_

Just as Raven's fingertips touched the keyboard, a piece of paper fluttered in from the open window and landed on her lap. She stared at it for but a few moments before grabbing it and holding it up to a candle. Her whole being chilled when she saw that the words had been written in blood. They cut across the paper in hard, thin lines as if they had been scratched out with a bloody razor.

 ** _ME  
road  
beach  
shallows  
ocean  
beyond  
DONE_**

 _"This is... a progression of something. From the road to a beach, to the shallows and beyond... done..."_

The epiphany struck her like a speeding semi-trailer. Slamming her laptop shut, she tossed it onto the bed before taking to the air and blazing out of her window. She flew around the tower in circles, desperately straining her eyes in search of the one who had left the note.

 _"Someone here is suicidal. The road of life, the wordplay of 'life is a bitch', the shallows of a shallow existence, the rough and unforgiving ocean - and the ME DONE in capital letters followed by the desire to go beyond. Someone here is trying to say that they are done with life, done this progression and journey..."_

Even as she hovered over the tower searching the vicinity and further analysing the poem in her head, Raven knew at the back of her mind that there was a possibility that she could have misinterpreted the poem. It could represent the relief of being done with a difficult life on earth and the joys of moving on to the heavenly afterlife. Perhaps it could represent a personal achievement of going against all odds to accomplish something beyond one's wildest dreams. But the blood - it seemed far too ominous to give the poem a positive connotation.

Raven levitated further upwards to get a better bird's eye view of the tower and the city. Just when she had completed an unsuccessful psychic scan, she noticed the red and blue flashes of light coming from police cruisers parked at the base of an old red brick apartment building. Pulling out her communicator, she checked the mission tab only to see that there were no mission alerts.

This was highly unusual. Whenever there were emergencies - no matter how small they were - the Titans were always given an immediate notification from the local police department. While they did not attend the more minor ones that the cops could handle, they were still kept in the loop in case the petty crime was a part of a bigger one. The lack of a notification - this could only mean one thing:

 _"The cops are hiding a case from us. This has never happened before."_ Overwhelmed with curiosity and concern, she teleported herself onto the roof of the apartment building before leaning over the edge for a better look. _"A van from the morgue! Somebody died and the cops didn't tell us?"_

Reassuming her raven form, she took off from the rooftop and plunged downward right next to the van were two workers from the morgue were having a conversation.

"I know there's nothing we can do about it. But I... I just can't believe this is the fifth one who died this way." One of the workers said in a trembling voice as he freed his hands from a pair of rubber gloves.

"I wonder if they intend to report this death or keep it under wraps again like all the others." Growled the other resentfully as he balled up his gloves and furiously smashed them into a nearby trash can like a frustrated baseball pitcher.

"They shouldn't be doing this. It's- It's just sick and wrong to pretend that children aren't dying just to protect your reputation." Raven backed away a little. This man who worked for the morgue; who had probably seen hundreds of bodies in varying states of mutilation and decay, was tearing. "They should tell somebody. They should tell the Titans."

"They won't and until you know what happens, we can't."

"Sick and wrong I tell you. Sick and wrong." The voices died off in a distance as the two walked to the front of the van and climbed into the cab.


	3. Chapter 3

Raven had heard enough. Still in her raven form, she slipped between two police officers and made her way up the stairs like a moving black sheet of paper made invisible by the darkness. Guided by the abundance of the criss-crossed yellow tape, she found the apartment in question and snuck in like the unnoticed wind. The first thing that struck her was how messy the place was. There were stacks of newspapers piled all over the living room - some of which appeared to have soaked up what looked like puke to her. Empty bottles of beer adorned the floor and the aged yellow wallpaper plead for freedom from the walls. Fortunately for her, the lone lightbulb that brightened the living room did such a bad job of it that none of the cops noticed her.

Curiously, she plunged down the darkened hallway and stopped at the room at the end of the hall - the room with the yellow tape on it. Bypassing the tape, she found herself in what appeared to be the room of a little girl. A pink wooden bed stood in the corner of the room. It was so old that it was shedding pink specks onto the floor before her very eyes. The mattress that rested on it had a huge concave dent in the middle that was poorly concealed by the blue threadbare sheets that had been stretched over it. There was no pillow, no blanket. Just a stuffed toy sitting at the end of the bed - a stuffed toy of Raven.

 _"That is... me."_ In that moment, it dawned on her that the victim was a fan of hers. Backing away from the bed, the astonished Titan turned her attention to the unmistakable stain that clung to the scratched parquet floor. Judging from the blood splatters on the bed frame and the stain on the floor next to it, Raven assessed that the victim had probably died as they sat on the floor and leaned against the bed. A sharp object must've been involved too to cause so much bleeding. Though it was just a haunch, Raven suspected that no foul play was involved. The room was far too neat for there to have been a real struggle. She had been to enough crime scenes to know that. Whoever who died in here had probably _intended_ to die, at their own hands nonetheless.

A glint caught Raven's eye. Next to the bed was a small table that had a stack of magazines that served as the forth leg that it did not have. Resting on top of the table was the latest publication of the literary magazine 'Literatura'. The moonlight danced off its waxy pages, almost as if it were beckoning her to come closer. She didn't need to. She knew what was inside that magazine. She too was a subscriber. Her eyes roved over the titles of the heap of books that lay in a haphazard jumble on the pink desk at the corner of the room. They were all books that most people didn't even dare to touch, let alone read. Books that had been dark and deep enough to attract her attention at the bookstore. Whoever this person was, they shared her tastes in Literature.

There was only one article of furniture left in the room: a pink cupboard. Raven hovered out of reach of the light as a man that she recognised as Detective Collins strode into the room and opened the cupboard. She watched as the detective rummaged through the cupboard, tossing several pairs of black coloured jeans on the bed in his bid to declutter it. That was followed by several blue tops, a couple of black blouses, a pair of blue felt boots, a pair of black leather boots, an indigo hoodie and several pairs of sunglasses. That was it. Raven felt as though she had been looking into a mirror. Had this apartment been the Titans' place this room would've probably been hers.

Phasing through the walls, Raven found herself in the dingy master bedroom next door. Feelings of disgust welled up within her as she stared at the hideous dirty blue sheets accompanied with the ever present sight of puke that seemed to be the standard decorative item in this place. The room was very poorly furnished and she could see a wet patch of rotting parquet in the corner where the air conditioner was leaking. Sitting on the nightstand against the wall were two porcelain dolls - a bride and a groom - that had been arranged in such a way that they were facing one another. She could see that they were exquisite figurines even with all the dust that adorned them. As she looked around, she began to understand the situation. This was a place that _used_ to be a loving, happy home.

She finished her tour of the rest of the apartment in five minutes. Everywhere she looked, there were signs of past joys and happiness that had been ruefully covered by the dilapidated state of the present. Take the kitchen for example. There had been a pile of beautifully painted plates partially caked with mould in the sink that was not nearly as disgusting as the branded pot that stood on the stove half filled with what she could only guess was some kind of soup.

Sick to her stomach, Raven returned back to the tower as soon as she could before standing in the middle of her room, as if she were in a trance. She was thinking about all the things that just didn't add up, starting with the financial status of the victim's family. First of all, the apartment had been located in one of the poorest parts of the city. Nobody wanted to live there unless they really had no where else to go. While the permanent fixtures in the house like the beds and cupboards backed up the poverty present by looking older than all the Titans combined, the bed in the master bedroom was covered with some very special sheets. She had seen these sheets before - in a spotless mansion owned by a filthy rich widow who had been robbed of some diamonds. Of course, she had taken note of that in the widow's house because the sheets were blue and of course the ones here were several hundred thousand times dirtier but that didn't change the fact that these sheets caused a small fortune. Stained lace is still lace. And then there were the branded pots, a baby grand piano that had been ruined beyond repair by what looked like a sledgehammer and a several once beautiful paintings that looked like they had decided to take a soak in the bathtub. Why would the family have all these things?

And then there was the Literature. How did a child from an underprivileged family afford the box set of novels that Raven herself had spent several hundred dollars on in the bookstore? How did someone who sleeps on threadbare sheets afford the steep monthly subscription to the elitist magazine Literatura? Who was the victim really and why did this person... resemble _her_?

* * *

Robin opened his eyes and squinted at the streams of sunlight breaking through his window. Pulling himself up from his desk, he wiped the drool off his chin with his gloved hand and stared at the piles of unfruitful work in disgust. Shuffling some papers together, he tucked them into the drawer beneath the desk and shoved it shut. He stared at the screensaver of his laptop with bleary eyes. 7:55AM. Placing one finger on the touchpad, he gave it several taps to snap his laptop out of its trance.

Just as he was about to shut it down, he noticed a small circular red dot with a '1' in the middle clinging to the Communicator Application at the lower left hand corner of the screen. That application had been created because of Beast Boy. Robin knew secrets that none of the other Titans did and one of those secrets was that Beast Boy and Raven had been sneaking around for the past few months. For some reason, those two secret lovers had decided not to tell anyone they were an item and instead spent the wee hours of the morning sneaking out on dates. Raven was an undisputed owl who liked the night more than she did the day, thus staying up late had little effect on her performance in training and on missions - although she did seem a tad crabbier, if that was even possible. Beast Boy on the other hand, was so starved of sleep that he became a brainless zombie the whole day and even fell asleep during training on more than one occasion. Robin had confronted Beast Boy in private about it and despite the promises to stop the midnight romps, he didn't quite trust Beast Boy. Thus he had secretly created this application to track the whereabouts of all the Titans, especially the unlikely couple.

 _"Raven left the tower... by herself?"_ Suddenly, Robin was wide awake. _"She left at 12:05AM..."_ He stared curiously at the big violet circular flight path Raven had drawn around the tower. _"Why would she suddenly come out and fly... oh I get it."_ He zoomed out of the tower and followed the violet line all the way to that particular apartment building. A smirk grew on his face. He had finally gotten a lead. He'd be lying if he said that he truly believed that Beast Boy and Raven were a couple. After all, Raven acted like she hated Beast Boy's guts half of the time and was always trying to kill him or to make him go away. On Beast Boy's part, he seemed to be both afraid of and strangely attracted to her but to Robin, this was very surely a case of unrequited love. This, this made so much more sense. Raven, the poetic princess of darkness was up to something and she was using the love-struck Beast Boy as a little slave. Robin took down the address of the place and slammed his laptop shut.

 _"Whatever you're up to Raven, I'll find out and you'll be sorry."_ He grabbed the keys to his R-Cycle and sprinted out of the room - forgetting that the lack of proper sleep has the same debilitating effects on one's judgement as alcohol does.


	4. Chapter 4

Robin checked the address one last time before pulling to a stop at the side of the street. Taking off his helmet, he chucked it on his bike and proceeded to do a thorough scan of his surroundings. This was definitely one of the more crime infested parts of the city. There were jagged shards of glass everywhere on the streets; evidence of the drunken brawls that often took place here at night. He studied the building before him with the eye of an architect. It had been sturdily constructed brick upon brick and was five stories high. Judging by the number of windows each side of the building had, there were probably four apartments to one floor and Raven could have visited any one.

Leaving his bike at the side of the street, he slowly walked in and started climbing the stairs. He wrinkled his nose in disgust. Even the stairways reeked of urine and misery. He tramped past the first few apartments looking for anything out of the ordinary that could possibly interest Raven. When he reached the third floor, he finally stopped at the part of the staircase where there was an opening that allowed him to see into the street. He wanted to check if his bike was still there. As he looked down, he caught sight of a man in a suit getting out of a simple brown car that had been parked right in front of his bike. He instantly recognised the man to be Detective Collins from the JCPD. Robin watched curiously as the detective nervously circled his bike before pulling out a mobile phone. Robin's communicator had been linked to his bike thus with a few pushes of several buttons, he was able to use his bike's microphone to listen in on the detective's conversation.

"This is definitely his bike. I swear to God this Robin is like a parasite. ... Sheesh you're getting worked up for nothing boss. Robin is smart but he has no powers. His ability to sneak around into places without us knowing is limited. ... Fine I'll leave immediately." The detective got back into his car and that was the end of what Robin could hear. What he didn't hear however, was the detective telling his boss that the Titans they actually had to be afraid of were Raven and Beast Boy because 'the girl can sneak anywhere with that soul self of hers' and 'the boy can be a fly on the wall that we can't see'. Clearly they had underestimated Robin.

Back at the stairway, Robin closed his communicator as he watched the detective drive away. He was surprised that his fingers even worked at all. He felt like an ice sculpture. Detective Collins only worked with murder cases. For him to be involved and for him to come here, that meant that this was probably one of the sites for an investigation of a murder case. Raven had come here too. He had concrete evidence that she had been here. This meant that she knew more about this crime than she was letting on. This would also explain why the cops didn't want Robin to know. They were afraid that he'd tip off Raven, the suspected murderer. The cops never hid any cases from the Titans. The only plausible reason he saw for them to hide a case would be if one of the Titans was personally involved. This person had to be Raven.

He decided to start knocking on all the doors to pump the neighbours for information. They had to know more about this. He had no hard evidence but his gut was sure of it. Raven the heroine, was a _murderer too._

* * *

Back at the tower, Starfire had woken up late for some reason and for reasons only known to herself, suddenly decided to start screaming at the top of her lungs as if she were vying with Black Canary for the title of 'Most Destructive Scream'.

"Why is Star screaming this time?" Groaned Cyborg from where he was making their breakfast in the kitchen. Usually the Titans didn't wake up this late but now that Robin had been strangely out of the loop for a week or so, they had become accustomed to the habit of waking up late without their fearless leader to drag them from their sheets.

"Dude just let her scream for a while." Beast Boy sighed as he rinsed some strawberries in a bowl. "After a while all the gibberish she's yelling will start to make sense and we'll figure out what's up. Either that or Robin will go comfort her."

"BB, Robin's not here." Cyborg stated above the sizzle of bacon.

"Where'd he go?"

"Hedoesn'tdothelovingofmeanymore! Hepromisedhepromisedhepromised!" Starfire's wails filled the tower.

"Who doesn't love who?" The robotic man asked thoughtfully.

"See... It's starting to make sense now." Grinned Beast Boy smugly.

"They're at it again." Cyborg shook his head sadly. "Well, whatever it is, you gotta get Raven to go comfort her since Robin's not here."

"Dude... You know Raven doesn't like to deal with stuff like that." Beast Boy said cautiously. Cyborg still didn't know about him and Raven and he wanted to keep it that way.

"Since when do you defend her?" Great. Now Cyborg is suspicious. Somewhere in the tower, they could hear the sounds of furniture being forcefully bashed against the wall - undoubtedly the work of their mighty alien princess.

"I'm defending her because I don't want to be the one to force her to go help Star. You know how crabby she gets." Beast Boy said as casually as he could.

"I know! Butcha gotta do something before Star runs out of stuff to destroy in her room and comes out here to find more stuff to hit." Cyborg glared at his green friend. "Raven! Don't you dare sneak out of here!"

"Shut up Cyborg."

"What did you do?" Cyborg lightly punched Beast Boy on the shoulder after Raven had walked out of the main room with a packet of muffins that she had taken when they were not looking.

"Simply because Raven is in a bad mood does not mean I automatically had something to do with it!" Beast Boy exclaimed defensively. Cyborg raised an eyebrow. "Fine!" The shorter Titan jerked the refrigerator door open and pulled out an apple. Yes, although Beast Boy was now six feet tall, he still was shorter than Cyborg. "There! You happy?" He demanded as he proceeded to chomp through the apple as if he had no manners.

"Yep." Cyborg said breezily and turned away before Beast Boy could see the smile creeping onto his face. They weren't best friends for no reason. He knew that Beast Boy was hopelessly in love with Raven; perhaps more than even Beast Boy himself would like to admit.

"I went outside to sign for my book delivery and I saw this sitting on the step." Raven walked back into the main room with a small cardboard box that was about as long and wide as the average laptop and as tall as the average bottle of shampoo. "It's for Starfire." She added as she carelessly tossed the box onto the counter. "What are you doing?" She stared at Beast Boy's cheeks that had ballooned in size with the apple filling in his mouth.

"Imtryweingtosowshyborghuwmadiam."

"You're an idiot." Raven smirked before walking away with her book and her muffins. Cyborg looked at the retreating figure to Beast Boy and then back to Raven's back again. Beast Boy had just made Raven laugh! Or at least smile. Or at least smirk. But at least he managed to get some kind of reaction out of her that wasn't an angry or annoyed one! Maybe - just maybe - their relationship might go somewhere.

The sound of splintering wood from Starfire's bedroom snapped Cyborg's thoughts back to the couple in crisis. Reaching over, he grabbed the box that Raven had left on the counter and read the note. Dear Starfire, happy anniversary it read. May this be the beginning of many surprises. Love, Robin.

"Oh! I get it." Grinned Cyborg as he dashed off to Starfire's bedroom with the box. "Starfire thought that Robin forgot their anniversary! Well good thing he came through."

* * *

"Is it just me or are Starfire's screams getting louder?" Raven demanded from behind the book she had just received. She sat comfortably on her bed, her back to the wall with her legs stretched out in front of her. Every now and then, she'd tuck her right ankle in the L-shaped corner of her left foot only to let her right foot slide off after a while. Beast Boy sat on the floor with his chin resting on the edge of her bed, visibly disturbed by some of the things she had in the room yet too fascinated by her to leave. Raven never let anyone in. Being here just made him feel even more special than he already felt. It had taken him months of persuasion just to get here.

"You said something?" He suddenly realised that she had taken her eyes off her book and was now burning two holes into his face with her gaze.

"I asked-"

"Raven you open up this door right now!" Cyborg pounded on the door with all the power of his great metal fist. There was a delayed reaction. Raven ignored the door and started glaring at Beast Boy.

"Right!" Beast Boy morphed into a fly and landed on a bookshelf. Satisfied that he was out of sight, she reached out and encased the door in her powers.

"Yes?" She asked coolly, never once stirring from her bed.

"Where did you get that damn box?" Cyborg demanded, taking several steps into Raven's room. She looked down sharply at his feet. Seeing her reaction, he took several steps back out into the hallway but maintained the stern expression on his face.

"It was on the doorstep. Someone had just left it there. The delivery boy said it wasn't his so I didn't have to sign for it. I saw their names so I brought it inside."

"And so not for a minute did you think to screen it before ya brought it in to the tower?" Cyborg screeched.

"I put it through your x-ray machine and the machine cleared it." Raven stated coldly. "What was inside anyway? Why is Starfire even more upset now?"

"I don't know that's why I'm asking you! I gave it to her and she took it inside and closed the door. Next thing you know, she's screaming! Even louder than before! By the way do you have any idea where she learned all those vulgarities from?"

"No."

There was a long pause.

"Aren't you going to talk to her? Woman to woman?" Cyborg questioned, some of the stream having evaporated from his previous outburst.

"The reason why I've been avoiding her is because I'll make her more depressed than she already is. I don't exactly have a good track record at cheering people up." Raven sighed.

"At least show her that you care." The robotic man disappeared from the doorway leaving the empath with her thoughts.

"I do care more than I'd like to." She mumbled, tossing her book to one side. Swinging her legs off the side of her bed, she stood up and headed for the door. She could hear a buzzing near her ear and knew that Beast Boy was following her. "No." She whispered to him as she swatted him away.

"Why?" He exclaimed, having morphed back to human form.

"She might see you." Raven turned and walked away in the direction of Starfire's room.

 _"Well, at least she's doing what I'd been secretly hoping she'd do all morning."_ Thought Beast Boy.

"Starfire?" Barely five seconds after the word left her mouth, the alien princess threw the door opened and dragged her into what now looked like a junkyard. Raven surveyed the damage with keen eyes. Starfire had truly broken everything that was there to be broken in the room. "Talk to me." Raven said reluctantly as she leaned against the wall.

"Last week Robin and I went to the place with the moving pictures." Starfire still struggled with nouns despite having been on Earth for this long. "After we did the coming back..." She took several quick breaths to compose herself. "He was upset and not interested. He didn't kiss me the goodnight, do the cuddles with me or anything. For the rest of the week he ignored me. He keeps doing the hiding from me. One of the days I gave the reminder that our anniversary is today. I asked him if he loved me. He said he did. I asked him prove it. He said he'd do something special on our anniversary to show me. He didn't even wish me good morning." She ended softly as her eyes pooled with tears. Had Raven known that Starfire would be able to talk like a rational person instead of yelling and throwing stuff, she would have come here to talk a long time ago. Now she felt a slight twinge of guilt. The tantrums had clearly been a cry for attention that she had ignored until now.

"I..." Raven closed her mouth. Despite the fact that she understood emotions and how to control them better than any of the Titans did, counselling wasn't exactly her cup of tea. "What's this?" She noticed the box that she had brought into the tower sitting on the floor in the middle of the room. Starfire said nothing. She rarely said nothing. That was Raven's forte. Sensing that the box was the true cause of unhappiness, Raven strode over to it and sat down. Despite having destroyed everything in her room, Starfire had left the box pristine. Pulling up the flaps, Raven reached inside and pulled out... a bottle of body wash and a bottle of deodorant. She set the bottles on the floor with two soft taps and continued digging through the packing foam in the box. There was nothing else save for a red card stained with bold black letters. Raven fingered the spine of the card, hesitating to flip the cover over in her consideration for Starfire's feelings.

"Read." Said the alien simply before turning to look at the ceiling.

So Raven read it and having done so, she wished she hadn't. Robin had signed it. That was definitely Robin's signature at the bottom though the hurtful poem at the top - that didn't sound like him at all. The Robin they knew wouldn't call Starfire a...

 _"Four lines per stanza with the fifth as the anomaly... This pattern looks exactly like the ones that I got from the_ _paper and on that fanfiction website."_ Raven's heart raced. _"Could Robin be the writer who composed all this stuff?"_

Was Robin actually a better writer than anyone ever gave him credit for?

"I find it hard to believe that Robin wrote this." Raven stated bluntly. "He doesn't seem like the sort of guy who would break up with someone by writing a poem."

"I know he did it. It is really of the over now." Starfire's hoarse voice croaked from somewhere behind Raven. "Robin has done the writing of stuff to me before because he said he isn't so good about talking about his feelings. He said it is something Earth boys do sometimes. This is exactly how he always does the writing of things."

"Where are all these things that he wrote for you?" Raven's interest was definitely piqued at this point.

"I did the destroying of it with my star bolts." Fortunately for Starfire, she couldn't see the long face that Raven pulled when she heard that response.

"Star? Rae? You in there?" Beast Boy called from beyond the door.

"What." Raven snapped.

"I was just wondering if you two wanted any dinner." He said almost timidly. He had learned the hard way that women who are extremely bad tempered and heartbroken are not to be trifled with.

"The best revenge is to show him that this doesn't affect you at all. It will make him feel unloved when you act like you don't care." Raven offered.

"Yes we will do the eating." Starfire nodded after a brief period of consideration. Raven followed her out of the room, her mind in a whirlpool of thoughts.

 _"Robin could really be the writer of this thing. He is capable of extreme self-loathing so he might have a legitimate purpose for hating on us and himself. I am pretty sure it is him."_ Raven started to nod unconsciously. _"The biggest giveaway is the pattern it flows in. It is so similar._ _The first poem that I got was actually pretty decent but the one he gave Starfire was definite crap. I think he was trying to write that one badly on purpose because he knows that nobody would expect him to be a good poet so he's trying to write it in such a way that she would believe it is him. I'm going to watch him very carefully from now on..."_

* * *

If Robin had been expecting a warm red carpet welcome from his teammates upon his arrival back at the tower for dinner, he would've been sorely disappointed. The second he stepped into the main room, it was as if the whole place had frozen over. Cyborg and Beast Boy were glaring at him, Raven was staring at him and worst of all, Starfire acted like he didn't even exist. When he took his place at the table, there was a period of uncomfortable silence. Cyborg handed him his dinner with the same reluctance with which overtaxed people handed over their taxes. Beast Boy refused to pass him the salt and Starfire would't even look at him despite his attempts to make eye contact numerous times.

Every now and then, he would steal a glance at Raven only to find her staring right back at him. It happened every single time. It started to become really unnerving after a while. Raven had a darkness to her stare that he knew was innate and he'd be lying if he said that she didn't scare him sometimes. She was silently observing him as though he had done something wrong.

 _"Why is she making me uncomfortable?"_ He wondered to himself. _"She's the one who's up to no good here. I should be the one making her uncomfortable."_ So he started staring back. Their eyes locked over and over again. Each only looked down for the purpose of eating. After a while, Cyborg and Beast Boy noticed what was happening and became very quiet. A few minutes ago, they had been trying to keep some playful banter going to stave some of the awkwardness away but now they just stared at their plates. They were scared. Robin vs. Raven. Oh no.

Beast Boy snuck a peek at Raven. He couldn't understand how Robin could look into her eyes with such anger on his face. She looked like she was ready to raise the temperature of hell. He looked away, not because he was afraid but because he had uneasily realised that he actually found her quite attractive like that.

"I'm going to my room." Robin said coldly without so much of a glance at Starfire. He couldn't bear to look at her because he knew she'd be looking away and the rejection hurt him more than he wanted to admit. His mind was going on overdrive right now because there were just too many things he didn't understand. He didn't understand why his teammates were giving him the cold shoulder all of a sudden and he couldn't understand why Starfire had switched from being a loving caring girlfriend into an ice queen replica of Raven. What he did understand however, was that Raven's behaviour during dinner was an admission of guilt. He perceived her staring at him to be an unconscious response to the fear of being caught by him and therefore, she was watching him carefully to make sure he didn't uncover her secrets.

"I'm going to my room too." Raven declared after Robin had left. Putting her hood up, she levitated off the ground and headed in the direction of her room. She thought that she saw things clearly now. Robin's awkward treatment of Starfire and the way he tried to ignore her on purpose was proof that he had really dumped her and the relationship was over. Furthermore, the way he glared at her when she stared at him proved that he felt guilty about being a jerk thus making him irrationally angry when she made him uncomfortable. And maybe, just maybe, Robin was the real poet that she was after.

That night, Starfire carried the little cardboard box of her nightmares down to the rocky foot of the tower. She stood close enough to the water's edge to allow the shiny moonlit liquid to lap the lips of her boots. For a few minutes, she just stood there watching the moon make magic with the water. Then she squatted down and extended her arms over what she intended to be the watery grave of her tears. She let the box go. It landed with a plop and bobbed up and down for a little while. She gave it a kick, sending it right into the light currents the swirled around the tower. She didn't wait for it to sink, she simply turned and went back in. And from behind her shrinking back, a hand reached out and grabbed the box.


End file.
